Cox Cable Cards

I called Cox Fairfax and have it scheduled for the cable cards on Wednesday 9/20 between 3&5. Normally they show on time, hopefully he won't be too early. It's kind of hard to explain to the boss why I want to leave early that day.

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Heh, I've got my CableCard install scheduled for 5-7 from Cox Fairfax on Wednesday as well. What are the odds we've got the same technician?

BTW, are you having to pay a double digital outlet fee? The CSR rep indicated to me that I would have to pay two digital outlet fees, but who knows what it's going to be when they show up?

Heh, I've got my CableCard install scheduled for 5-7 from Cox Fairfax on Wednesday as well. What are the odds we've got the same technician?

BTW, are you having to pay a double digital outlet fee? The CSR rep indicated to me that I would have to pay two digital outlet fees, but who knows what it's going to be when they show up?

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They said some gibberish about paying two install fees and that the monthly charge was like $2-$3. I would have questioned her more but I was at work making the call and didn't have much time and also it didn't sound like she really had any idea what she was talking about. So I will start with the tech when he comes and sees it is just the one box they are going in. I am hoping he will have a better understanding of how it will work. I am sure Cox will try to nickel and dime me to death on this, but I can't have sattelite, I have a huge building blocking any antenna reception, and I just can't go back to standard tv!

Thanks guys for posting this info. I too am using Cox Fairfax, and will have to deal with them once my TiVo arrives (I am in the lucky 200, grrr). So I am very interested in how smoothly your installs go.

Succussfully installed 2 cable cards from New England Cox ( I live in Connecticut). I did have problem explaining anything new like cable card supported device to the cox CSR in the past, ex. I did have a series 2 Tivo and "34" Sony WEGA HDTV with a HD tuner and cable card support" and a set top box from Cox as well. When I called them about 6 months back to order a cable card, I had hard time explaining them to have a cable card in addition to cable box, they were trying to convince me that either I can have a Set-top box or a cable card, I was not successful at all in explaining about the TV feature, like 7 Video inputs are equalent to 7 TVs/ Tv Input sources.

So this time when called to order and schedule an appointment for the cable cards, I didn't mention anything about Tivo, I just told them that I need two cable cards and the CSR asked that whether it is for two new HDTVs ? I said Yes, the rep showed up today, he was the one installed my prevous cable card for the TV, So he sort of know me. ( I also explained him during his last visit, that I would be getting a Tivo Series 3 in the future and he should help me with the cable cards). I just gave him the instruction sheet, we just followed the instruction. Cable card 1 did go through without any problem. Cable card 2 did not receive digital content, but appeared to be a problem in their end, he was on the phone with their office about 10 mins while they were setting up the card 2 again) thats it in 15-20 minutes I got it working. The only problem I am having is that series 2 tivo remote interfere with the new box as well, I want to keep the series 2 too. To use as third tuner for analog channel recording when my two tuner is busy with HD content.

The tech just left. This was his first HD Tivo and didn't realize they had come out with it. It took about 15 minutes to get it all set up and now he is off to probably do some more installs and get the Tivo for himself.

I am doing the guided setup right now, so fingers crossed I was still be running in a half hour.

Forgot to ask about the prices! D'oh! Just too happy to have it all running I just plain forgot to ask.

My install in Irvine went well too. Took about an hour in total. One thing that threw him (and myself) was that when the CC was first inserted, he went to get the information off the card through one of the screen menus and it wasn't coming up. He thought it was a bad card and we tried swapping cards, rebooting, etc. When he went to call in, the information popped up on the screen. Turns out you have to wait a few minutes for the Tivo to pull the info (MAC, device ID, etc).

The second card I think was bad cause the premium channels wouldn't come through. He swapped it out and all was good.

He said they had a meeting this morning and were talking about the S3 and to be prepared for these types of installs going forward.

The tech was very thorough and made sure all my channels were working on both cable cards before he left. He seemed to like the Tivo alot... wonder if he went to go buy one after he left...ha ha

sparkomatic, I'm in Orange County area as well. I've been trying to find out exactly what the cable charges are. The logical plan is:
- Turn in the Cox DVR to save $9.95/month for box rental + $4.95/month DVR service fee
- Cablecards rent for $1.99 each but the 2nd one carries a 'additional outlet' fee of $1.49
- Continue paying the digital cable service

Does that sound right? I've heard different stories from different Cox markets so trying to figure out exactly what the costs involved are.
Thanks

sparkomatic, I'm in Orange County area as well. I've been trying to find out exactly what the cable charges are. The logical plan is:
- Turn in the Cox DVR to save $9.95/month for box rental + $4.95/month DVR service fee
- Cablecards rent for $1.99 each but the 2nd one carries a 'additional outlet' fee of $1.49
- Continue paying the digital cable service

Does that sound right? I've heard different stories from different Cox markets so trying to figure out exactly what the costs involved are.
Thanks

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Sounds right to me. I'm about to turn in my 2nd Cox cable DVR box for just a regular HD box so I'll probably ask them about the cable cards when I do.

The guy had never seen a S3 before, but we gamely went through and figured out the instructions. First CableCARD he tried was dead (the S3 saw that it was inserted, but it just said that the card wasn't working properly). The second and third ones he tried seemed to work ... but I could only tune a few channels (a few of the network HD ones). Mind you, it KNEW about all of the channels, but the other ones just got a blank screen when they were tuned. The guy said, "Well, sometimes it takes up to a half hour to get all of the channels downloaded" (whatever THAT means).

I went to dinner. When I came back, CableCARD 1 works perfectly. CableCARD 2, however, has not changed it's state. I called Cox, and they tried "sending a few signals", which had no effect. So they scheduled a technician to come out and possibly try another card.

I guess my mistake was not insisting that all of the channels were working. Somehow, I feel like that second CableCARD is working, but it's just not initialized correctly somewhere at Cox. But at least Cox is willing to fix it.

BTW, has anyone noticed that after a reboot it takes a few minutes to get the CableCARDs to sync up with the headend?

After a reboot it seems to take a minute or two for the card to receive the authorization packets across the cable network.

Your problem with card two is very likely a setup problem. I had a few minutes with the exact same situation as yours. It turned out that the technician at the head end had not "balanced" the subscriptions. Basically, they authorized the card for for the basic channels but not for the premium channels. Another call to support should fix you right up.

COX came out this morn. inserted the cards and within minutes data came back on the screen - he gave two sets of #'s to his Ofc. and within minutes all channels were displaying. No extra cards reqd. Even with testing, took abt 45 minutes, All seems to be working fine now - almost too easy.

After a reboot it seems to take a minute or two for the card to receive the authorization packets across the cable network.

Your problem with card two is very likely a setup problem. I had a few minutes with the exact same situation as yours. It turned out that the technician at the head end had not "balanced" the subscriptions. Basically, they authorized the card for for the basic channels but not for the premium channels. Another call to support should fix you right up.

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Thanks for the suggestion; I did give them another call. The guy found out that the card was still listed in the database as being tied to another host ID, which wasn't either one of the Host ID's for the TiVo. He reset that, unpaired and re-paired the card. However, that didn't fix it. The install tech said that sometimes the cards take a while to "download the channels", whatever that means. At worst, I have a tech coming out on Saturday to replace the card with another one. Maybe tomorrow all of the channels will be tuning on that card.

It's an odd mix which aren't available ... some of the SD channels are there, and some of the HD channels are there. Weird things, like a block of channels around Cartoon Network aren't available. But other "expanded basic" channels are there.

I bought my series 3 through Circuit City. Cox (Chandler, AZ) came today to install the cable cards. We have only been able to get card 1 to work. card 2 knows all the channels I should be seeing but only displays video for channels 1-99 (which is displayed with or without the card in place). We tried everything to get card #2 to work--he called the office to send a signal, verify the host, we rebooted, reran setup. Nothing has worked.

We tried switching cards and card #2 worked correctly in slot 1, and card #1 did not work in slot 2. At this point I'm thinking there is something wrong with Tivo's slot #2. I called Tivo support but they were no help. Will be returning this Tivo tomorrow and getting another one to try. If the same problem occurs, its time to call the cable company again .

After the Cox rep follows TiVo's instructions for the install, what is the easiest way for my wife to confirm that both cards are working properly before letting the Cox tech leave?

I'm hoping she doesn't have to go through the whole guided setup while he's waiting there... At the same time, I'm worried that if they leave before it's working correctly, we may have to wait another week to get them back out.

After the Cox rep follows TiVo's instructions for the install, what is the easiest way for my wife to confirm that both cards are working properly before letting the Cox tech leave?

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Under the generic CableCard menu (the one that pops up when you insert/remove a CableCard), there's a "Configure CableCard 1" and "Configure CableCard 2" menu entries. Under those ones are "Test Channels". What you want to do is under each CableCard make sure you can tune ALL of the channels that you want. That was my mistake ... I didn't do that. Arguably the tech should have done that, but he wasn't quite the sharpest knife in the drawer.

I am located in Kansas and I just called Cox to arrange for the install. The CSR tells me the cards have to be ordered and will take about a week to get them.

Is this possible? Do I need to play CSR roulette?

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I'm in VA, andit took about a week to schedule my install... it's possible it was because they had to get the cards, but I don't know. It seems like a lot of folks in here are reporting about a week to get their ccs installed.

I bought my series 3 through Circuit City. Cox (Chandler, AZ) came today to install the cable cards. We have only been able to get card 1 to work. card 2 knows all the channels I should be seeing but only displays video for channels 1-99 (which is displayed with or without the card in place). We tried everything to get card #2 to work--he called the office to send a signal, verify the host, we rebooted, reran setup. Nothing has worked.

We tried switching cards and card #2 worked correctly in slot 1, and card #1 did not work in slot 2. At this point I'm thinking there is something wrong with Tivo's slot #2. I called Tivo support but they were no help. Will be returning this Tivo tomorrow and getting another one to try. If the same problem occurs, its time to call the cable company again .

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So if the card itself is fine, and the tech knew enough to get the cards enabled... the only thing I can think of is card #2 is the top slot, and card #1 is the bottom slot. The instructions are pretty clear about installing card #1 (the bottom one) first.

Do you know if the tech put the bottom card in first? I don't know if it would make any difference or not. Do you still have both cards and the phone #s to activate them, so you can try again to see what happens?